Beep!! A piercing whistle rang out, accompanied by a Marleyan officer's furious roar,
"Move! Eldian troops, charge! All units forward! Let those Middle Easterners know the consequences of angering Marley!"
Within the deep trenches, countless Eldian soldiers wearing Marleyan military uniforms but with silver armbands on their arms were tense and uneasy, their white uniforms stained with dust and blood.
Ahead of the trenches lay a battlefield already reduced to scorched earth, covered with craters of all sizes and corpses.
After learning that Marley had lost three of its Titans, the Middle Easterners brazenly launched a war. Marley, which had dominated the world for a hundred years, had long made enemies across the globe. The Middle Easterners were currently the only ones to declare war on Marley, but there were undoubtedly the shadows of other nations behind them.
In response to the provocation from the Middle Easterners, Marley's high command chose to strike back with thunderous force. They could not tolerate any nation harboring designs on Marley's hegemonic status. In the eyes of Marley's leaders, Marley was still the Marley that had subdued the world a century ago.
However, the very first battle of the Marleyan army's campaign was brutally crushed before this nameless small fortress.
A combat division composed of three Eldians and a battle group composed of Marleyans—a force of over thirty-five thousand—had now suffered more than seven thousand casualties under the terrifying artillery strikes and firepower of the small fortress, while the Middle Eastern forces stationed inside numbered fewer than two thousand.
This battle made Marley lose all respcet and also made the world realize that Marley truly had grown weak. Thus, on the fourth day of the assault on the fortress, General Calvi directly issued a death order: within one day, this nameless fortress had to be taken.
Under the brutal shouting of Marleyan officers, several thousand Eldian soldiers gritted their teeth and rushed out of the trenches, charging toward the fortress they had already assaulted countless times.
The Middle Eastern counterattack came swiftly as well. Continuous whistling sounds came from the sky. Some Eldian soldiers looked up—and the next instant, boom!!
Rising flames engulfed several Eldian soldiers. Shell after shell slammed into the charging ranks of the Eldians, and blood and fire once again dyed the land red.
"Ah! Save me! I don't want to die! Save me!" An Eldian soldier clutched his leg that had been blown off and wailed miserably, but not a single soldier around him stopped. Stopping meant death, because dozens of heavy machine guns inside the Middle Eastern fortress began spewing fire.
The dense barrage tore apart the bodies of the soldiers charging at the front.
At this moment, a slender figure rushed to the side of the amputated soldier, yanked hard, and dragged him into a nearby shell crater.
"Captain Serena! Save me! I don't want to die!" The wounded soldier, as if seeing a savior, clutched Serena's arm tightly.
Serena's face was smeared with dust and dried bloodstains. She pulled out a tourniquet and tied it around the wounded soldier's severed leg. As for painkillers like morphine, their Eldian unit had none—only the Marleyan units were equipped with those.
Yet, before the wounded soldier's despairing eyes, Serena miraculously pulled a small injector from her pocket and jabbed it into his arm.
"Live on!"
After saying this, Serena grabbed her rifle and nimbly rushed out of the trench.
Whether the wounded soldier could survive, Serena herself could not guarantee. There was only so much she could do. But it was precisely her actions that earned her the support and trust of many Eldian soldiers, and within just a few days she rose from a recruit to a captain.
Bang! She pulled the bolt, the shell casing ejected, and a Middle Eastern soldier inside the fortress fell.
Serena barely reached a blind spot in the fortress's fire coverage. Looking at the vast numbers of fallen Eldian compatriots, her heart felt extremely heavy. Today's order was a death order. If the Eldian troops dared to retreat, they would all be treated as deserters and executed.
It could be said that the Marleyans truly regarded the Eldian troops as expendable cannon fodder. Little did they know that such behavior had long sown the seeds of hatred deep in the hearts of the Eldian soldiers.
Serena realized this as well—this was precisely her purpose for joining the army. The Eldian Restorationists needed strength, and these Eldian soldiers holding rifles were that greatest strength.
In the blink of an eye, the Eldian forces had already suffered more than half their casualties. Taking the fortress seemed like nothing but a dream—but the Marleyans' backup had arrived.
On a towering earthen slope, several figures stood tall. Then came two dazzling yellow arcs of electricity and jets of steam.
A Armored Titan, its joints bristling with sharp spikes and wielding a massive shield, suddenly charged madly toward the fortress.
A Cart Titan covered in ironclad equipment also sprinted rapidly toward the fortress. The iron tower mounted on its back spewed fire—this was the Cart Titan's chariot squad.
And ahead of the two Titans was another Titan never seen before. It was a ten-meter-tall Titan with disheveled golden hair, faintly visible red eyes, now galloping on all fours.
In the blink of an eye, it reached the side of the fortress. The Titan let out a roar, straightened its body, and pale bony claws grew from its fingers and feet.
Squish! The bone claws easily pierced the solid fortress wall. Using both hands and feet, the Titan rushed up onto the fortress in an instant.
"Titans!!" The Middle Eastern soldiers panicked. The Titan suddenly flung its arm, and the bone claws at its fingertips shot out at high speed, their terrifying impact piercing through several Middle Eastern soldiers in a row.
At the same time, the Armored Titan wielding the massive shield crashed open the fortress gate. The fortress's machine guns were utterly incapable of causing even the slightest damage to the Armored Titan.
The Cart Titan also seized the opportunity to charge inside the walls, the machine-gun firepower of the chariot squad on its back causing countless Middle Eastern casualties.
On the distant slope, Zeke narrowed his eyes and murmured,
"Yago, things have gone beyond both our expectations. Porco... how did he come to possess the power of a Titan? It seems we need to hurry."
Roar!! Amid skyward yellow arcs of electricity, the Beast Titan let out a furious roar and grasped a massive boulder.
...
Warhorses thundered across the land. On the vast grasslands advanced the main force of the Survey Corps, deployed in the Long-Range Enemy Scouting Formation. Under the might of the Thunder Spear, whether ordinary Titans or terrifying abnormal types, all could only fall.
Gradually, in the direction the Survey Corps advanced, a trace of blue appeared on the horizon—and the blue grew larger and wider.
"What is that?" Armin asked excitedly. Yago looked at that expanse of azure and said, "There—that blue—is the ocean."
"The ocean?! Is it the salt-filled lake of salt the books talk about?!" Armin was so excited that a flush appeared on his face.
"Yes, that is the ocean—the ocean that surrounds our entire Paradis Island."